


Friend of a Friend

by TheInsomniacTree (WalrusofDestiny)



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: F/M, High School
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-02
Updated: 2020-07-14
Packaged: 2021-03-04 04:13:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 10,749
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24677473
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WalrusofDestiny/pseuds/TheInsomniacTree
Summary: Through years of trial and error, Percy Jackson has finally figured out how to not get kicked out of school. He hovers around his best friend Grover, doing the bare minimum social interaction with everyone else he needs to get through the school day without issue. Friends bring issues and (in his case) suspension notices, but friends of a friend? Well, they're just people you eat lunch with. But when Grover's friends at Percy's new school turn out to be a little more than he bargained for, he finds himself learning a few new things, including, but not limited to, the fact that Annabeth Chase uses the word 'hence' in real person conversations.
Relationships: Annabeth Chase/Percy Jackson
Comments: 4
Kudos: 35





	1. The Rumor Comes Out: Does Percy Is Gay?

Now, before we get started with all of this, there is one very important fact about me you have to know:

I simply do not _vibe_ with the school system.

Now, you might be thinking ‘Oh, he’s just being a whiner who doesn’t like his school.’ But, rest assured, I have been to a LOT of schools. I would frankly refer to myself as a school expert. That statement is made after gathering the most varied data a student could possibly grab. However, despite my clear adherence to what little I know of the scientific method, most people don’t really consider that a valid opinion to have. I am referred to as a ‘problem child’ more often than not. Although, it would be more accurate to say that everyone else has a problem with _me_. Teachers, students, the universe, everyone around me has been absolutely determined to be an asshole since I was six. I just happen to stand up for myself. In ways that are deemed problematic.

The Jackson family has always had trouble with school. My mom had to drop out of high school to support her dying uncle. My brother, well, school’s not really his strong suit whatsoever. And me? ADHD, dyslexia, a penchant for dishing out shit as much as I take it, we’ve… accepted that school is just something I have to get through, not something I enjoy.

‘Don’t act up. Don’t act down. Be strong.’ That’s the mantra my mom gave me. It’s great advice. I can’t get too involved, because that just asks for trouble, but I can’t be too much of an ineffectual loner because that _also_ asks for trouble. I just have to keep plowing through until I’m out of high school.

To be fair, I was getting pretty good at it. I had the whole thing figured out halfway through middle school, in no small part thanks to my best pal, Grover. See, Grover Underwood is the nicest wallflower you’d ever meet. We first bonded over the fact that our names sucked. I was named after a Greek myth, and he was named after Sesame Street. Then, we became the dream team. Being the kind of guy who would apologize to a mugger for being poor, he kept me out of a lot of trouble with teachers. Being the kind of guy who looked like he would be the mugger in that situation, I kept Grover out of trouble with bullies. For those one and a half years, we were golden.

Then, everything changed when high school attacked. Turns out, dyslexia and ADHD do NOT do wonders for one’s grades. Shocking, I know. Grover wanted to go to Goode High, a high school that was… good. I also wanted to do that, but people kept saying words like ‘GPA’ and ‘permanent record’ so the Dynamic Duo was wrenched apart.

But, I had learned my lessons through middle school: you wanna stay out of trouble? Hang out with the weird kids. Not the _weird_ kids, but like, the ones that no one has a problem with, but no one really wants to talk to either. Be funny, be likeable, but don’t be a class clown. Don’t let anyone get too close. If you so much as hear someone say the words ‘drama’ or ‘beef’ just bolt for the hills. 

That got me through my freshman year of high school. But then, Grover, the blessed man that he is, nominated me for a ‘community outreach’ scholarship at Goode. Now, me, my mom, and my brother are like, five sob stories jammed into one family, so Goode decided that adding a feather in their ‘diversity and community support’ cap was worth paying the tuition of a troubled kid like me. Mom made it clear that messing up at a school as good as Goode (gods, that’s never not going to be funny to me) was unacceptable: this would be the high school I graduated from, no matter what. Which is where things get complicated.

See, when Grover shadowed at Goode, he was shown around by this guy, Luke. Luke decided to keep poor little Grover under his wing when he became a proper freshman, because, hey, somebody has to look out for that guy. Now, as it turns out, Luke’s pretty popular. He’s close friends with my cousin Thalia, and the web just sort of spirals from there. Let’s do this orderly shall we?

The table Grover and I sit at is mockingly called the Hall of Olympus, because me and my cousins Thalia and Nico are guaranteed to eat lunch there, and we are the children of ‘gods’ (long, very annoying story that all of us despise telling). We shorten it to HoO, as in ‘HoO boy sure would hate to sit with _those_ trainwrecks’ Who else is so ‘lucky’ as to sit at the Hall of Olympus, you might ask?

The seniors, Luke and Reyna, although only occasionally. Luke apparently doesn’t hang out with his old friends as much as he used to, and Reyna only sits with us when Jason does. I go out of my way to avoid discussing their reasons and motives for these choices. It _reeks_ of drama.

Following up are the juniors, Thalia and Frank. She’s kind of the glue of this operation. She knows the most people at the table via first contact. Frank… well, Frank’s just a good guy. No one can exactly pin how he got to the table, but we all like him so it’s cool.

Making up most of the table is the sophomores. Me and Grover, obviously, then, Jason (my cousin and Thalia’s brother), his girlfriend Piper, and their friend Leo. That trio has been together apparently forever. They’re all nice enough, Jason’s a bit of a square, Leo’s a little too ‘class clown’ for my comfort and Piper’s got the kinda voice that forces you to listen to her, but they’re good people. Interesting, at least. And then, the lovely miss Annabeth Chase. She’s fun, just because she takes everything like, five degrees too seriously. Which makes it all the more hilarious how doe-eyed she gets whenever Luke shows up.

Then the freshman, Nico (my other cousin) and his adopted sister, Hazel. They were... Well, let me put it this way: if all of us minus Jason, got together for a family photo, we would look like a punk rock band, with Nico and Hazel being the emo ones, me being the skater badboy, and Thalia being the only one who was actually punk. Nico and Hazel weren’t necessarily delightful to be around, but Thalia was determined to be there for Nico after his blood sister died, and Nico and Hazel were determined to stay together, so here they all were, the Hall of Olympus, looking like a set-up for the world’s worst sequel to the Breakfast Club.

Now, you might be asking yourself, ‘But Percy, this whole table seems to be a ticking time bomb of drama and tragic personal relationships. This is a total 180 from your philosophy’ And you are absolutely correct. But, here’s the reasoning behind it: A) Grover is my best bud, I’m not going to not hang out with him just because his friends are primed to star in like, ten after-school specials. B) They’re all pretty funny, popular enough that I’m not gonna get picked on for hanging out with them, and, most importantly, C) none of them are MY friends. Grover’s the only one of them I knew beforehand. Thanks to that long, annoying family history that we all hate talking about, I barely know Thalia, Jason, Nico, and Hazel. At best, they’re all friends of friends. Hell, shout-out to current record holders Leo and Piper, for being friends of a friend (Jason) of a friend (Thalia) of a friend (Grover).

Don’t get me wrong, they’re all good people. Knowing me, I’d stick out my neck for them if they needed me, which is why I keep myself distant, so they never ask. I can’t afford to get into trouble, so while they’re all getting supernovas, or planetary collisions, or some other space disasters, I’ll be hanging so far out in the orbit of Planet Grover that they never would think to get me involved.

It’s the perfect plan. And sure, technically speaking, none of my plans have ever worked, but I wouldn’t be a son of Sally Jackson if I didn’t have unfettered optimism guiding all my decisions.

It was a cold October midday when I sat down at the Hall. Team Pileon (Leo came up with a Voltron-esque name for him, Piper, and Jason, since they were usually together) wasn’t there, neither was Luke, so clearly it was up to me to be the funny, charming one today.

Hazel and Frank both looked at me and smiled. I smiled back. Loved those kids. Always so nice. Nico and Thalia gave me nods, and Annabeth didn’t acknowledge me. She was reading some nerd book. The kind with small font. I did my best to not look at it. Grover sat down next to me in a huff.

“What’s got your goat, G-man?” I asked.

“Hah hah,” he grumbled. Grover’s laugh sounded a lot like bleating, thanks to the fact that he was always insanely nervous so his voice was always warbly. So, naturally, all goat references were hilarious. “If you must know, I just got asked _again_ if I had any, and I quote ‘of the good kush’. Why do people keep assuming I have weed?!” he demanded.

I scratched my chin. “That’s an amazing question. Now, hear me out, because this is a little crazy, but, do you think it _might_ have something to do with the rasta cap and peach fuzz?”

Thalia snorted at that. Annabeth looked up from her book and started paying attention to me. Record time.

Grover scowled. “I can’t help it that the hair grows in like lightning.”

“What, is your hair magnetized to vaguely racist hats too?” Thalia asked.

“I like my hat,” Grover grumbled. “Also, how come no one ever points fingers at Percy? If I smoked weed, he’d obviously be my dealer!”

“Whoa, you fall into ONE tank in Sea World, accidentally killing a fish, and suddenly your best friend thinks you’re a criminal?” I asked. “That’s just blatant profiling. There is no justice in the world, I swear.”

“Sorry, you _dropped_ onto a fish at Sea World?” Annabeth asked, voice dripping with disbelief.

Ah, Annabeth, always the first to call out my bullshit. I loved her for it. “Yup,” I acknowledged. “It wasn’t on porpoise, luckily.”

Annabeth looked like I had just smacked her across the face. “God dammit,” she muttered, turning back to her book in glorious defeat.

Thalia laughed and clapped her hands while Hazel and Frank hid their smiles for Annabeth’s sake. “Oh, he got you yet again. Hook, line, and sinker.”

“Which is doubly appropriate for the fish joke,” I added.

“Porpoises aren’t fish,” Annabeth grumbled. “I wouldn’t have fallen for it if you’d been right about something.”

“You’re absolutely right, Wise Girl, because saying I ‘accidentally killed an aquatic mammal’ really makes the joke flow.”

Annabeth rolled her eyes, but said nothing. Another point for Percy.

“Um, sorry,” Hazel piped up. “But, Grover, do you, do you _not_ smoke weed?”

There was silence, and then the whole table (sans Grover) absolutely lost it.

“I do not,” Grover sniffled over the giggles, clearly offended that his title of ‘World’s Most Straight-laced Teen’ was being called into question.

“Oh,” Hazel said, going back to her lunch. “Uhm, sorry.”

“It’s not your fault, Hazel,” Frank quickly interjected. “Grover does look like a stoner.”

“Excuse me?!” Grover asked.

“Hey, man, if the shoe fits…” I said. “Which, of course, it doesn’t, on account of your cloven hooves, but-”

“Oh, that is it,” he warned, standing up. “If this is the way I’m treated, I’ll just leave-”

“For greener pastures?” I asked.

He glared at me. “Well, I hope everyone gets one last look at my ‘vaguely racist hat’ because this is the last you’ll ever see of it.”

As he turned, I reached for his arm. “No, baby, don’t go,” I begged. “I can change, I promise. I’ll be better!”

“No, it’s too late, Percy,” he responded in a comically high falsetto. “I’ve heard that one too many times. I’m leaving you for good.”

He tore away from my loving hold and walked out of the cafeteria, leaving me to clutch at my newly broken heart. Frank glanced nervously at the door he left through. He turned back to us, clearly worried. “He’s not, like, actually leaving right? I didn’t mean to-”

I recovered from getting dumped in two seconds flat. My man Frank needed me. “Relax, Frank,” I said. “He’ll be back. He only left because we’ve got a test this afternoon, so his bowels are on high alert. Ten minutes or so, and he’ll be back good as new. Better, even.”

Annabeth made a face at that, but Thalia leaned forward to me. “So… at the risk of sounding insensitive or obtuse, you and Grover aren’t actually dating are you?”

“Thalia, you’ve known me for a month, and you’re just now asking?”

Thalia shrugged her shoulders. “Hey, I wanted to ask sooner but my legal counsel advised against it.”

“Are you just going to let her throw you under the bus like that, Ms. Lawyer?” I asked Annabeth.

Annabeth looked at me, smirking with a spark of lighting in her storm grey eyes. “It would seem the defendant is trying to dodge the question.”

Thalia grinned as well. “Sustained.”

“Wait, are you the judge or the prosecution?” I asked her.

“Who cares, answer the question, goat-fucker.”

I glanced around. Even Nico was watching me with rapt interest, and Nico never cared about anything. “Well, if you all must know, Grover and I are, tragically, both straight,”

“Tragically?” Annabeth asked.

I nodded. “I mean, if we were both gay for each other? Dude, that’d be it! Like, good game everybody, we’re going home. To have one of life’s biggest problems solved before I’m even out of high school? I wish we were gay.”

“I mean, I wouldn’t exactly call love and marriage and all that one of life’s biggest problems,” Frank chimed in.

I glanced over at him. Frank always did strike me as a ‘stable home life’ kind of guy. Not that there was anything wrong with that or anything. More interesting, no one else at the table offered any sort of agreement with him except Hazel, but Frank could have claimed to be an animorph and Hazel would go to bat for him. Annabeth’s stony expression, however…

My musings on Annabeth’s face were cut off by my cousin.

“Look, I’m just fielding the question because,” Thalia grinned. “You’re the only one who can maintain our oh-so important family legacy, so you obviously have to have kids.”

I narrowed my eyes at her. “Watch it, Grace.”

Annabeth perked up. “And what is this oh-so important family legacy?”

“Nothing,” Nico, Thalia and I said at once, with varying degrees of levity.

Frank glanced over at Hazel, who shook her head. I was relieved at that. Hazel was no snitch, good to know. The less our family was brought up the better.

No one wanted to pick up the conversation after that, so I decided to use the lull to cram as much food in my mouth as I could. Lunch was too short to eat all the food I wanted to eat. I vaguely processed Annabeth looking at me in horror, but I brushed it off. She really should be used to it by now. After a few minutes that would have put Kobayashi to shame, Gover came back.

“Good news, Grover,” Thalia announced. “Percy corroborated your story, so now I have no choice but to accept that you are, in fact, not dating Percy Jackson.”

“Finally,” Grover said, sitting back down. “Why do people keep thinking we’re gay?”

I reached over and draped my arm around his shoulders. “I honestly have no idea, babe.”

Grover groaned and shoved my arm off, but he was grinning regardless. Annabeth chimed in. “How is your stomach, Grover?”

“Better now,” he admitted. “Had the time to use your flash cards, which made me feel better too.”

Annabeth smiled at him. “And how come I didn’t get flash cards?” I asked.

Her smile dropped like a penny off the Empire State. “Flash cards are for people who would actually use them, Percy.”

“I would use them!” I argued. “Use them as coasters, as bookmarks…”

“I’ll believe that you’re straight, Percy,” Nico remarked. “I refuse to believe that you can read.”

I grinned at Nico. Okay, that one dug a little deep. The kid seemed annoyed at me for some reason, because there was a bit of actual venom there, but whatever. Don’t act up. “Jokes on you, Nico, I can read comic books. _Now_ who’s the idiot?”

“Still you,” Annabeth muttered. “Comic books barely count as reading.”

“I’ll have you know that comic books actually help kids at lower reading levels read better,” I said. “My mom read an article that said that once.”

“Oh, I’m sure she did,” Annabeth scoffed.

I could feel my temper start to rise a little bit. I knew all this was just karma for all the goat jokes I made earlier, but still. These people weren’t Grover, they didn’t have that sort of clearance yet.

“Alright, I’m a goat and Percy can’t read, hah hah, come on, these are low-hanging fruit," Grover said. "We’ll never think to talk about anything else if we just let ourselves graze here"

I swear that guy’s a mind reader. Not that I’m complaining.

“Grover’s right,” Frank said. “I propose a moratorium on all forms of insults.”

I stared blankly at him. “Moratorium means ‘break or suspension’,” Annabeth offered. “Usually of a law, but in this case, a style of conversation.”

“Why didn’t you just say suspension?” I asked. “I know what that one means for sure.”

Frank gave me a nervous laugh, like he didn’t want to be rude by not laughing, but he clearly also didn’t like the joke. Seriously, what a nice guy. I could almost humor him on this. “Okay, sure, no insults, can I still call Annabeth ‘Wise Girl’ since it’s _technically_ a compliment?”

“Can I still punch Percy for calling me Wise Girl since it’s _technically_ a massage?”

Frank looked between us and just sighed. “I just wanted to set an example, is all. Didn’t want Nico and Hazel to think this is what all friendships are like.”

“Alright, fine. Frank, this is for you.” I turned to Annabeth. “Want to bury the hatchet? We can be nice to each other now. You give me flash cards I can’t read, and I’ll pretend like you’re funny in front of Luke. What do you think?”

Annabeth glared at me, her storm cloud eyes began to rumble dangerously. In hindsight, mentioning Luke might have not been my smartest decision. “I think that your brain fell out when you hit the water in Sea World, and the only thing you could find to replace it was seaweed.”

I shrugged my shoulders. “Well, I tried.”

Grover sighed wearily. “Did you? Did you really?”

"Eh, maybe." Honestly even I wasn’t fully sure how to answer that. Speaking of not knowing how to answer things…. “Okay, since I’m not getting personal flash cards and we’ve established that I can't read, Grover would you mind just reading those bad boys out to me? I figure I should do some kind of studying.”

“Yeah, sure thing man.”

And so another uneventful lunch passed us by. I made sure no one liked me any more than they did at the start of lunch, but no one hated me more either. Another peaceful day. I was feeling really confident about the plan. Weird as it may sound, I took a very real pride in being unpopular, and I didn't want to lose that.


	2. Annabeth Forgets to Read the Fine Print

Harsh as it may sound, I took a very real pride in the fact that I didn’t share any classes with Percy Jackson. When Grover told us that the infamous Percy (Seriously, Grover didn’t have a single story that didn’t involve him in some way) was transferring to Goode, I had expected someone, well, like Grover. Instead Percy was… not like Grover, to put it nicely. He wasn’t a bad guy, by any means. Good-looking in a way, funny at times, and he never made much of a fuss. But that’s all I could say about him. No ambition, no thoughts, nothing, he was just the kind of guy who thought he could coast through life on the shallowest of personality traits. He was content with being stupid which was, frankly, unfathomable to me. That was another thing that pissed me off about him. He never fought back. If anyone even joked about my literacy, I’d hurl the heaviest book I owned at them. I didn’t claw my way to a high reading level to have it made fun of. But Percy just didn’t care. Everything was just one big joke to him.

“”Alright, I’m going to politely ask you to stop thinking about my cousin,” Thalia said.

I looked at her. We were walking down the hall to our classes. “I wasn’t thinking about Nico,” I said.

Thalia sighed. “Save your breath. You get this look on your face whenever you start thinking about Percy, like you’re walking by hot garbage.”

“It can’t be _that_ bad.”

“It is,” Nico agreed. I jumped. I had completely forgotten he was walking with us. “Not that I blame you. I don’t really like how he makes light of everything.”

“See? Nico’s on my side,” I said. I had suspicions as to what particular topic that Percy had been joking about that got Nico riled up. It was a point of interest, but one I kept shelved, because it really wasn’t my business.

“You two stop it,” Thalia warned. “He’s family.”

“Thalia, you hate your family.”

“Not the ones younger than me!” Thalia argued. “We kids have to stick together, because fuck knows no one else cares about us.”

Nico glowered but didn’t argue. That was another point of interest to me, one that I desperately wanted unshelved. Every single one of the cousins HATED talking about their family. They all had different surnames, so logistically, they were related on their mothers’ side but Percy seemed capable of mentioning his mom without all hell breaking loose so maybe that wasn’t it either. When I found out that Percy was related to Thalia as well (Small world) I had hoped that he would be the string I could pull to reveal this web of intrigue, but he was even more tight-lipped than Thalia.

“Does the hallway smell that bad?” a voice jokingly asked. I jumped again, and saw Luke walking up to us.

“Oh, look at Mr. Sunshine, appearing for the first time in a while,” Thalia commented.

Luke gave her that lazy, charming grin of his. “Sorry, sorry, been trying to expand my horizons, y’know? Plus I don’t want any of you to be _too_ sad when I graduate.”

I rolled my eyes. I would be very sad when he graduated but I’m not about to let him know that. I couldn’t stop the grin on my face though.

“So, what’s up with you, Annabeth?” Luke asked.

“Oh, nothing!”

“She’s having issues with Percy,” Nico flatly stated.

I almost felt bad for how badly I wanted to punt the kid right then and there. Almost.

Luke’s smile wavered ever so slightly. “Look, I don’t know him as well as you guys ‘cause I’m not around, regrettably, but he’s Grover’s best friend, and if his home life is anything like me and Thalia’s…”

“Which it is,” Thalia confirmed. I gave her a curious sideways glance.

“Then he needs some good friends. And you guys are some of the best I ever had so…” He gave us all an apologetic smile.

“Sure, we can get along,” I said automatically. Thalia smirked at me. I ignored her as Luke grinned at me. “I knew I could count on you, Annabeth. But that’s enough about Percy, how have you guys been doing? I haven’t sat at the Hall in what, a week? What’s going on?”

“Oh, uh, nothing much. Y’know, just, acing classes as usual,” I said, trying not to smile too much.

Luke’s grin only got wider. “Atta girl.”

I felt like I might take off from the ground, but Nico simply strolled past me. “You guys should get going,” he said. “Classes start soon.”

Luke glanced at him as he walked away. “I, uh, I probably should’ve asked if he was doing alright too, huh?” he asked, looking guilty.

Thalia nodded. “Probably. But that’s my job more than it is yours, so don’t worry your pretty little head about it.”

“As you command,” Luke said. “Well, he wasn’t wrong. I’ll catch up properly with you guys later, okay?”

And just like that, Luke took off again. I watched him head back down the hallway. “I think we just need to work on your poker face in general,” Thalia commented. “You look like a puppy waiting for its owner to come back from work.”

“Shut up,” I grumbled. “And how do you know that Percy’s home life is as bad as yours?”

“Intuition,” she said. “He’s got this edge to him. The kind of edge you don’t get unless you like, REALLY hate your dad.”

I raised an eyebrow at her. “What?” she said. “You wouldn’t be able to tell. You like your dad almost.”

I hummed, not bothering to confirm or deny that statement.

Thalia glanced at the approaching classroom, realizing it was hers. “Well, talk to you later, Wise Girl.”

“Oh, don’t you start too!”

Thalia laughed as she turned into her classroom. I walked the rest of the way to my class alone. Honestly, I didn’t see what the big deal about Percy was. Luke and Grover insisted we all be close because they were just sweethearts like that, Thalia wanted him around because she felt like they were going through the same shit, was I the only one unconcerned? He was a friend of a friend, not exactly someone to stick my neck out for. As I walked into Honors Latin I once again felt relieved that I didn’t share a single class with Percy. Firstly, because if I did that would mean I was not in an ideal academic position (to put it mildly) and secondly, because it allowed me to do my schoolwork nuisance-free. And Latin was my favorite.

Mr. Brunner was one of the best teachers I’d ever had. He was funny, he made things interesting, and he was good at keeping attention, which was critical, because I had a focus issue. Really, I was too good at focusing if anything. If I caught onto a single thread of thought, it would be the only one I could pull for who knows how long. Luckily, Mr. Brunner was always skilled at making sure the thread I wanted to grab at involved what he was teaching. His Latin class was a combo of both the language and some Roman mythology (with a little bit of Greek thrown in). I absolutely loved it.

After a highly productive class (I kept on target and took relevant notes the whole time) I was walking out the door when Mr. Brunner called me. “Ah, Ms. Chase, if you wouldn’t mind staying back for a minute, I have a proposition for you.”

I turned around and walked back to his desk. “What is it, Mr. Brunner?”

He rolled his wheelchair from behind his desk in that 'let's get personal' kind of way. “I have a proposition for you, Ms. Chase. If it’s quite alright, I’d like you to tutor one of your fellow students.”

I blanched at that. “Erm, Mr. Brunner, I’ve tried tutoring before, it uh, it doesn’t always work out.” I had taught a lot of my stepmom’s friends’ kids as a way to ‘bond’ with her and all of them were miserable little shits.

Mr. Brunner nodded his head. “I understand. Rest assured, I wouldn’t be asking this of you if I thought he would be disinterested. He is a passionate, amiable young man whose only issue is possessing a… disposition highly unfavorable to academics, shall we say. I felt you might help him overcome some of his struggles.”

I frowned, wishing he hadn’t hit me where it hurt. I was VERY good at getting over a ‘disposition highly unfavorable to academics’. 

“And of course, I would be MORE than happy to include your gracious, community-driven attitude in any future letters of recommendation,” he told me, with a twinkle in his eye that let me know he knew he was making an offer I couldn’t refuse. And he was right. I would jump on anything that could give me an edge for getting into a good college.

“You’re making it very hard to say no, Mr. Brunner,” I said. “I suppose I could help him out.”

Mr. Brunner beamed at me. “I am truly happy to hear that, Annabeth. Thank you kindly.”

I nodded my head. “So, do you have his number, or…”

“Oh, I asked him to join us here. He should be getting here any-”

“Hey, Chiron,” Percy Jackson’s voice rang from the door. “You wanted to see me?”

You know how in movies and TV shows, when people get screwed over because they didn’t read the fine print, or a major loophole was left unclosed? I always thought those people were idiots. I would surely never make that sort of mistake. Well, hindsight is 20/20 isn’t it?

Percy glanced at me confused. “Sorry, sir, do you want me to wait until you’re done with Annabeth?”

“Oh, do you two know each other?” Mr. Brunner asked.

“We eat lunch together, sir,” he said.

I was surprised by that. Not ‘we’re friends’ or ‘we know each other’, just ‘we eat lunch together’. I mean, he was right, that was the exact limit of our relationship, I was just surprised that he was aware of it.

“Oh, delightful, this makes it that much easier. No Percy, Annabeth just agreed to be your tutor.”

Percy looked at me like I had just slapped him across the face. “She did?”

 _If I had been given a name I most certainly fucking wouldn’t have,_ was the thought I tried to project into his seaweed-riddled brain. “Yes,” Mr. Brunner agreed, blissfully unaware of the crisis situation. “It only makes sense, my best student working with my worst student.”

Oh, I just knew what Percy was going to say. _Geez, Chiron, surely Annabeth can't be your WORST student._ I turned to him, dreading the appearance of his stupid, lazy grin as he mentally applauded himself for being funny.

“I- wait, I’m your _worst_ student?” Percy asked. Rather than crack wise, he actually chose to respond seriously. In fact, I was shocked to see that he seemed to be genuinely upset.

Mr. Brunner nodded. “Of the students who actually care, yes, you are, Percy. We aren’t at Yancy anymore. The students at Goode are better, and I fail to see any reason why you can’t be better too.”

I briefly and rudely wondered if Mr. Brunner’s eyes were bad too, because I could think of at least three reasons Percy couldn’t be better.

“With all due respect, Chiron, I can think of like, 5 reasons I can’t be as good as the rest of Goode,” Percy said. Well, at least he was self-aware. “Annabeth is Valedictorian-in-waiting or something, right? I don’t know if you oversold me sir, but we both know she could be doing better than bothering with a lost cause like-”

“Mr. Jackson,” Mr. Brunner interrupted. “I believe we have been over what kind of language is allowed in my classroom.”

Percy stiffened. “Sorry, sir.”

I smiled despite myself. In lieu of a nicer recommendation, maybe I could ask Mr. Brunner to teach me how to get Percy to stop talking on demand. “Now, Annabeth has kindly agreed to tutor you, and since all you’ve ever needed is some good, proper help, I must say I look forward to the results. Now, you two work out the details while I write you both late passes.”

Percy and I exchanged numbers as Mr. Brunner wrote us both passes for our next classes. I made a face when he pulled out his shattered phone. “Do you keep your rock collection in your pocket too?” I asked.

“Hah hah. Look, if it ain’t broke don’t fix it.”

“I mean, your phone’s objectively broken, Percy.”

“It works, doesn’t it?”

“Does it?”

“Hopefully so,” Mr. Brunner chimed in, handing us our late passes. “Phones seem to be quite integral to everyday life these days. At the risk of sounding like an old-timer, I quite frankly don’t think the modern teenager would be able to function without them.”

“It’s cool, Chiron,” Percy said. “I know you’re just jealous. I would be too. I mean, all we have to do to check the time is pull a box out of our pockets. When you were a teenager, you had to invent the wheel to go check the local sundial.”

“I am more than happy to take back the late pass, Mr. Jackson.”

“Oh wow, y’know, I just remembered that I have to go water my dog before Ms. Dobbs' class. Bye!” And just like that, Percy bolted out of the room.

Mr. Brunner chuckled as he left. “I must say, thank you kindly Ms. Chase. Truth be told, it is good to see the lad in high spirits again.”

I wrinkled my nose. “I had nothing to do with that, Mr. Brunner. If anything, I’d like him to be less spirited.”

Mr. Brunner laughed. “I wouldn’t be so sure, Ms. Chase. About you having nothing to do with it. I agree Percy would be best benefited to find a medium level of spirit.”

I eyed Mr. Brunner once again, curious as to how he seemed to know Percy so well. But, I was running late, and even though I had an excuse, I didn’t want to miss class. “Well, if you’ll excuse me, Mr. Brunner, I’ll get going too.”

“Of course, I wish you fruitful endeavors.”

And with that, I walked out of Mr. Brunner’s class, and into the rest of my day.

It wasn’t until I was back at home that I had to think about Percy again, and that was only because he texted me.

**Seaweed Brain**

**SB:** _This is the voice of God, coming to you with a divine revelation: Percy Jackson is my son, and you should honor this by worshiping the ground he walks on, doing all his homework,_ _and giving him all of your money._

I swear, even Leo wasn't as bad as this.

 **AC:** _I already have your contact in my phone, Percy. Also, why would God choose to speak with me via text?_

 **SB:** _Uhh, because his true voice and/or presence would incinerate you on the spot probably??  
_ _Yeesh, I thought YOU were supposed to teach ME._

I grimaced. In the dumb logic of his joke, that DID actually make sense. Letting him have the high ground pissed me off though, so I decided to change topic entirely.

 **AC:** _How do you know Mr. Brunner anyway?_

 **SB:** _He taught at me and Grover’s middle school. He always joked that our class convinced him to quit teaching middle school._

 **AC:** _Guess he wasn’t joking._

_**SB:** Yeah, guess not. Not that I’m complaining, he’s a great teacher. _

_**AC:** On that, we can agree, Seaweed Brain. _

_**SB:** Wow, you are really going all-in on that joke huh, Wise Girl? _

_**AC:** I think you just answered your own question, Seaweed Brain. _

_**SB:** Fair enough.  
_ _Anyway, about this tutoring thing, you know you don’t HAVE to tutor me, right?_

_**AC:** How do you figure? _

_**SB:** I can just tell Chiron you’re doing a great job and then study on my own. No one is wiser, and you don’t have to pull your hair out teaching me to read. _

_**AC:** I think the whole problem here is that you CAN’T study on your own, Mr. ‘Worst Student’. _

He had been responding pretty quickly, but he didn’t respond to that. I knew for a fact that he wasn’t doing homework or anything important or meaningful. I remembered how hurt he seemed to be when Mr. Brunner had said it to him. Maybe I had gone a little too far. Still, apologizing to Percy? I decided to change tracks again.

_**AC:** Also, why do you keep calling him Chiron? That CAN’T be his first name. _

_**SB:** You’d be surprised. It’s not though. But it’s a dumb story, not worth its cost in data. _

I frowned. He had responded quickly when I gave him a conversational out with the second text. It really did actually bother him to be Mr. Brunner’s worst student. Underneath all that ‘too cool for school’ posing there was some semblance of academic concern. And I was going to rip it out into the open if it was the last thing I did. Imagining Percy Jackson as a tolerable human being almost made me giddy. I would drag out a modicum of effort and civility from his seaweed brain even if it fucking killed me. Otherwise, eating lunch with him for three years would be a slow, painful death.

_**AC:** Hm. Regardless, I am tutoring you. I said I would, so I will. _

And that was all I had to say on that.


	3. Percy Learns Some Things

**Wise Girl**

**WG:** _Hm. Regardless, I am tutoring you. I said I would, so I will._

It physically pained me what an absolute teacher’s pet Annabeth was. Tutoring was the last thing I wanted. It had literally never worked before, and worse still, I was going to be taught by Annabeth? Miss 301 IQ, genius know-it-all Annabeth? She was going to _hate_ tutoring me, and that was a damn shame, because I was really proud of our relationship of basic tolerance we built up over this past month. But her having to put up with the fact that I, non-jokingly, can barely read would put her over the edge into outright dislike, which would put a wedge into her friendship with Grover, which would cause the whole social safety net I’ve crafted to crumble, all because she couldn’t say no to a teacher.

It’s not like I was much better though. Chiron’s voice kept bouncing around in my head. I mean, sure, neither of us ever pretended like I was one of his better students. Such blatant lies were beneath us. But still, the fact that I was his worst? That hurt. I mean, I was used to letting down teachers- in fact, it’s something of a specialty of mine, but Chiron? Chiron was different.

Yancy had been a different sort of middle school, chiefly because it taught Latin, which was weird. When I got there in the middle of seventh grade, I was frankly 100% ready to just make it to 8th, and quit school and run around lying about having a GED and being 16 until SOMEONE hired me. Then Chiron rolled into our class one day, and checked the class register. He immediately looked at me, and then he introduced himself as ‘Chiron’. He thought it was appropriate. He was an old teacher with not-normal legs, and he was teaching Latin. He urged the entire class to pour over Greek mythology, to find some hero or mythic being that they thought best represented them, and he’d call us all by those names. It was a learning experience, he argued. A way to understand that the myths still applied today, that the human condition never changed, only the stories. A week later, I wasn’t the idiot kid with the dumb name, I was the idiot kid with a convenient name for Latin class. Small difference, but it meant a hell of a lot to me.

Chiron didn’t stop there. He went out of his way to make Latin class interesting, something that grabbed my attention. I brought it up with him once, that he didn’t have to go so far for me, but he smiled. “I don’t believe I am. If a student is trying to learn, as I believe you are, Percy, and they still fail, that is the fault of the teacher. Just like the heroes of old, one must go through trials. You are, for lack of a better word, a trial, Percy. If I can teach you properly, I can teach anyone. Er, that came out wrong. I meant I can teach any level of- I don’t have a way of saying this nicely. Another trial for me, I suppose. My point is, Percy. Thank you. I am still learning how to be a better teacher, and you have been an excellent teacher in that- We really should have this conversation after I take a speaking class or the like, I am _not_ phrasing this the way I’d like to.”

Chiron had gone out of his way to properly teach idiots like me, never batting an eye as he did so. If it were any other teacher that was trying to get me a tutor, I’d brush it off. I didn’t care about grades, I just needed to graduate. But Chiron… I couldn’t disappoint Chiron. He was literally the greatest teacher there was, and for him to think that he failed in teaching me was out of the question. I needed to try harder, but Annabeth was annoyingly right, I wasn’t going to get better by myself.

I took a deep breath. This was only going to go poorly, but I owed it to Chiron to try and persevere. It was just another trial, another chance to prove myself a ‘hero’. Maybe I could convince Mom to make me a laurel wreath if I got a ‘B’ in Latin.

I texted Annabeth back.

 **PJ:** _Your integrity has moved me to tears. Brace yourself, I will NOT make this easy._

 **WG:** _Have you ever made ANYTHING easy?_

 **PJ:** I _have PERSONALLY chosen to lighten the strain on several of New York’s overcrowded schools throughout the years._

 **WG:** _Don’t get my hopes up, Seaweed Brain._

 **PJ:** _Hey, that ball’s in your court now, Wise Girl._

 **WG:** _Fuck, you’re right._

 **PJ:** _Good luck, you’ll need it._

* * *

Annabeth agreed to start tutoring me the next day, which made sense to me. It was like ripping off a band-aid, you had to do it quickly. I was so preoccupied with dreading the ordeal that I forgot one simple detail: the universe doesn’t need to wait to make you suffer. It was English class when in walked one of my greatest enemies: a substitute teacher.

“Hey guys,” he said, in his horrifically civil tone of voice. “I’m Mr. Stevenson. I’ll be tagging in for your usual class today because Mrs. Kerr is out sick. So let me just take roll real quick.”

And so he had spoken the forbidden words, sealing my accursed fate. No one ever bothered to actually take attendance except substitute teachers, and that’s assumedly because it is the only pleasure they had in their pitiful, treacherous existence. I glanced around, hoping against hope that he wasn’t there, that he was also somehow sick, but nope, three seats up and one seat right of me was Leo Valdez, playing with a circuit board underneath his desk. 

Leo was a good guy, a bit too much of a class clown, but that only let me blend in more. Sure I laid on the jokes a little thick, but at least I wasn’t as bad as Leo. He was funny and quick to keep the conversation going, but those were not things I appreciated about him at the moment. Once he heard roll call, it was going to be an absolute nightmare dealing with him.

There’s more than a few ways to get past a substitute teacher reading roll call if you have a stupid legal name. First, there’s knowing the alphabet. Tricky, I know, but, if you can master the skill, you can know when your name is about to be called and cut them off at the first syllable. Second, if you fancy yourself a quick draw, you can go for the double take. When they do a double take before reading your stupid name, you chime in before they can say it. Thirdly, the tree in the stupid forest. This one, you just bank on one of the other kids having an even more ridiculous legal name than you. I have pulled off all three in the past. Sadly, I barely remembered anyone’s name in this class, let alone their last names, which meant none of them were probably that ridiculous, so I was going to have to gamble on the double take.

He started reading off names. Banner... Carter… Grayson… I braced myself. ‘Jackson’ would be coming up fairly soon. I stared at him, determined to react in time for the double take. However, after Grayson said ‘Here’, Mr. Stevenson, with a poker face that would make a statue throw a fit of jealous rage, read out to the entire class: “Perseus Jackson?”

There was a surprised snicker that rolled across the class. Leo, king of subtlety that he is, whirled around and looked at me like I had just given him a birthday present, which I probably had. Now Leo had forced my hand. I was _clearly_ here, so acting like I wasn’t would just generate more attention. 

I raised my hand. “Just Percy, thanks,” I said, trying to inject the perfect mixture of laughter and irritation into my voice that would convey _Hey, don’t worry, I think it’s just as stupid as you all do._ Adding the irritation was easy. Adding the laughter? Less so. Regardless, the sub nodded his head and continued to go down the list. I got a few more glances, and a few more giggles, but nothing else. Still, my hair was on edge. Leo’s grin told me that this was only the start of the problem.

* * *

It took Leo two seconds after everyone gathered at the Hall for lunch to confirm my worst suspicions about him. “Guys,” he said, leaning in like he was about to bring us all into a conspiracy. “You’ll never guess what we learned in English class today.”

“How to speak it?” Piper offered.

Leo frowned and offered what I’m sure was a cutting response in Spanish. Piper smiled sweetly and said something else in French back at him. “What’d you learn, Leo?” Jason ‘Knew One Language' Grace asked. “In a language we all know, if it’s all the same to you guys.”

“I learned the true name of our best friend, Percy Jackson,” Leo declared triumphantly.

Grover bleated next to me. “True name? I mean, wha-what is he some kind of fey creature?” He bleated again, trying way too hard to pass this off, bless his heart.

Leo scratched his chin. “Amazing point. Perseus Jackson, wait in line to get me seconds.”

I looked down at myself, trying to keep my cool. “Hmm, I don’t seem compelled to fetch you more turkey sandwiches. I can offer you another kind of bird though.” I flipped him off. Might've failed in keeping my cool.

Leo chuckled. “Eh, wrong mythology, I guess.” He leaned forward, eyes still sparking with mischief. “No need to get so stony-faced about it, Percy.”

I scowled at him. Annabeth snorted. “Not that I’m defending Percy’s ridiculous name, but that is a _stretch,_ Leo.”

Thalia looked between us. “Okay, Percy’s name is bad, sure, but I feel like I’m missing something more.”

“Perseus was the Greek hero that slayed Medusa,” Annabeth explained. “Medusa turned people into stone, hence Leo’s ‘stony-faced’ joke.”

And this is how it started. First, my stupid name, then the ‘Who would name someone that?” and my answer is always ‘My jackass dad’ which sparks rumors and questioning about all of my family, being forced to hear my name and talk about my dad makes me more confrontational, only feeding the fire, and once untrue rumors of my actual family start spreading, well, ‘Perseus’ becomes a significantly less of a hero.

“Okay, I have a name that’s thousands of years old, but I didn’t get a say in that,” I argued. “Annabeth just used the word ‘hence’ on purpose. Can we jump on that please?”

She glared at me and Leo shook his head. “Fair point, Perseus, but she scares me more than you scare me.”

“Leo, I’m tempted to take you up on that challenge,” I said. And here we were. Same old story. I get provoked, I respond aggressively, everyone responds equally. New school, old habits.

“What’s the big deal anyway?” Jason asked. “You named your imaginary girlfriend ‘Calypso’. No one’s got perfect naming sense.”

Piper started cracking up as Leo turned red. “I- she’s not fake!”

“Oh of course not,” Piper assured him, still grinning like a madwoman. “She just lives in Hawaii, with only occasional access to the family computer to serve a connection to the rest of the world, and is of course, _astoundingly_ beautiful. Entirely reasonable.”

“...Seriously, dude?” Frank asked, looking at Leo.

“Oh no, I am not taking sass from Frank of all people!” Leo complained.

“Cry about it to Calypso, why don’t you?” Nico muttered.

That got another round of laughs as Leo descended into assurances that his girlfriend was real as Piper happily shared the most embarrassing brags Leo had come up with about the lovely super-genius girlfriend who was head over heels for him. Suddenly my name wasn't the funniest topic of interest. Piper seemed much more keen on divulging every (admittedly hilarious) tidbit, and everyone was keen on listening to her.

I looked over at Jason, who had gone back to eating his lunch, seemingly having no interest in the conversation despite being the guy who started it. He noticed me staring and gave me a curt nod and silently went back to his food. Huh. That was nice of him. Jason was the ultimate guardian against Leo’s nonsense. I suppose I actually did owe him one. 

I looked around. Obviously, Thalia and Nico weren’t going to comment on my name too much, Frank was too nice, but even Annabeth seemed uninterested in pursuing the Perseus angle. It seemed that the first step into a mid-year transfer just… hadn’t happened. Huh.

Grover elbowed me. “Told you they weren’t so bad, huh, Percy?” he whispered, grinning like an idiot. Of course, he was grinning. Grover loved this sort of stuff. He always dreamed of fantasies like people choosing to be happy and kind to each other

I shrugged my shoulders. “Maybe friends aren’t such a bad thing after all. Thanks, Sesame Street.”

Grover frowned. “Never mind. You suck, Perseus.”

“I know, goat boy. I know.”

I went back to my meal, and when I handed Grover my pudding cup, he didn’t mention it, just smiled to himself and kept eating.

* * *

My good mood in the wake of my cousin’s absolute bro move at lunch was quickly fizzling out as I walked into the library. It had been a good swim practice, but I could only stay in the pool for so long. I walked in and nodded at our librarian. Contrary to my general demeanor, I had been to the library a couple times. Goode had a couple copies of every textbook and required reading book and I absolutely took advantage of that. 

I walked to the study rooms. Annabeth said she’d be in room 1A. A1? Couldn’t remember. Surely there wouldn’t be a study room 1A AND a room A1 though. That would be stupid. I walked into the first room that had a combination of ‘A’ and ‘1’ on the door, and saw Annabeth, books in front of her, and what appeared to be our schedule on the whiteboard on the wall.

Reason #1 I Was Not Fully Onboard With This: When it came to academics, Annabeth and I were like night and day. She was a genius tryhard, and I was an idiot who firmly believed everything in life should be ‘pass/fail’. I had been hoping I could just read our homework and ask questions whenever I had one, but Annabeth clearly planned on going full teacher with this. Great.

She nodded at me as I stepped in. “Close the door,” she asked. “Don’t want to bother anyone when we invariably start yelling at each other.”

“Oh, good, we’re on the same page on that. One less thing I have to worry about.” I closed the door, and thus I was officially alone in a room with Annabeth.

Reason #2 I Was Not Fully Onboard With This: Annabeth was disarmingly pretty. Now, it’s not like I was bad with girls. I knew several pretty girls. I got along with Piper well enough, Rachel was one of my closest friends and she was pretty, but Annabeth was like, movie pretty. Like, the kind of intimidatingly attractive that would make her the super-competent romantic lead in an action movie. It was unsettling being around a girl like that without anyone as a buffer. I wondered if Annabeth could smell fear. I wouldn’t put it past her.

“You’ve certainly been busy,” I remarked, staring at the whiteboard because it was very easy to look at that without looking at her too.

“Not as busy as you’re about to be,” she said, standing up and grabbing a marker. “Did you get the reading done?”

“Since I had class this morning? No, I talked to Coach about it. The swim team doesn’t have the budget for those waterproof book wrappings, so I couldn't read it while I practiced either, which is frankly unacceptable to me. I’m thinking about taking this to the board. I’ve got a petition if you’d like to sign it.”

She rolled her eyes. “A simple ‘no’ would’ve been great, Seaweed Brain.”

“In my defense, I warned you that I would not make this easy.”

She grumbled something that I’m sure would’ve offended me if I heard it properly and marked on her board that we were starting with the reading. “For the record, you don’t _have_ to wait for the teacher to tell you to do the reading. You can do it beforehand.”

“Annabeth, I rarely get work done on time, let alone _beforehand_.”

“Forget tutor, you need a life coach, Jackson.”

“Maybe, but unless you’ve got the certifications, we’ll have to settle for a tutor for now.”

Annabeth hummed in response. “For now,” she agreed. “Alright, I don’t know where Mr. Brunner left off for you but-” Her eyes widened. “THAT’S why you call him Chiron!”

“Beg your pardon?” I asked.

“Your name is Perseus, a Greek hero, he’s your teacher, Chiron was a teacher of Greek heroes, it’s just a dumb inside joke,” she declared, clearly satisfied with herself.

I bristled at that. I definitely didn’t think it was ‘just a dumb inside joke’ but I also absolutely wasn’t going to vomit my heart out to Annabeth Chase of all people. “By jove, you’ve cracked the case, Holmes.”

She glared at me. “Just read your book, Seaweed Brain.”

Great, the fun part. I opened up my required reading. It was a book on Roman myths, but it was a transitional book, one of those books that slowly shifts into another language as you’re reading to give you context or whatever. Which really stinks when you can barely read English. Like, at the very least, if the book is fully in English, I know largely what to expect. But with this monstrosity, it’s just, ‘gee, is that mess of letters meant to be an English word I don’t know how to spell or a Latin word? Well, let’s hope it’s English, because I don’t know what the fuck it’s meant to be in Latin. Alright, I’ve sounded it out roughly and I don’t THINK it’s English, so now I have to hope I’m even CLOSE to pronouncing it right in Latin’ And then just having that same exact struggle play out over every other word? On a page FULL of words? It wears on a guy.

I had made it through almost two pages when I heard Annabeth’s voice. “This goes faster if you actually read the book, Seaweed Brain. Neither of us leave the room until we get done with the board.”

I glared at her. I had been starting to get into something resembling a groove. “Maybe I would get done faster if I didn’t have you interrupting me whenever you felt like it.”

“You can’t possibly be reading. I’ve been watching you stare at that page for like, two minutes.”

My face flushed. “What? You’ve just been staring at me this entire time?”

Seeing that I was embarrassed, Annabeth must’ve realized she should also be extremely embarrassed. “Not like _that_ , Seaweed Brain!” she argued, flustered. “I was trying to make sure you weren’t slacking off!"

“Well, I’m not, so you can stop staring at me!”

“Oh, bullshit, what, do you expect me to believe that you _actually_ can’t read?”

“Maybe I do!” I hissed, trying to not draw attention from outside. “Maybe, just maybe, I’m not like you. Maybe I don’t have a 200 IQ and flawless reading skills. Newsflash, Wise Girl, not _everyone_ wins the mental lottery!”

I don’t know what I expected from that. I think I just wanted to vent a little. It was satisfying to almost-yell at someone. But Annabeth didn’t get angry back. Her eyes just widened a little bit, like she realized something. “What do you have?” she demanded.

“What?”

“What do you have? Chiron said you had a disposition unsuited for academics. I thought that was just a nice way of calling you an idiot slacker, but he actually meant it. You actually have a learning disability. What do you have, Percy?”

Maybe it was the fact that she addressed me as ‘Percy’ for the first time that afternoon, or the fact that she had leaned forward and her face was distracting, but for whatever reason I stopped putting up a fight. “Dyslexia and ADHD, maybe something else,” I mumbled, embarrassed.

Here it was. At best, I would get pity. At worst, she would write me off as a lost cause. Annabeth stood up and turned to the board, scrawling annotations onto it like a crazy person. “Fucking hell, Seaweed Brain, why didn’t you tell me you had dyslexia? I have to change my whole lesson plan now.”

“I- you- There’s a lesson plan?” I asked, not quite sure how to gauge this reaction on the spectrum.

“There _was_ a lesson plan, and there _will be_ a lesson plan, but there is not currently a lesson plan, thanks to you not telling your freaking tutor about your learning disability. What were you even thinking?”

“What difference does it make to you?” I asked. “Unless that’s a magic formula you’re writing on the board to magically make me not dumb-”

“Shut up, you’re not dumb.” Annabeth paused. “Actually no, you probably are dumb. But you’re not dumb because you have dyslexia. That has nothing to do with it.”

“Really? The fact that I can barely read has nothing to do with the fact that I’m dumb? Please, enlighten me on that one, Wise Girl.”

“Because if dyslexia means you’re dumb then that means I’m dumb and I absolutely fucking refuse to be considered dumb by any metric,” she stated, staring pointedly at the board.

Now, I’m not the best at reading inbetween the lines, but even I realized what was happening here. “Hold on, _you_ have dyslexia?” I asked. I’m pretty sure my mouth was hanging way too open to be polite, but I didn’t care. Game of Thrones seemed predictable after that.

“Dyslexia and a lesser case of ADHD,” Annabeth clarified. “Newsflash, Seaweed Brain, I didn’t win the mental lottery either.”

“What? But, how?” I demanded. It almost didn’t seem fair. “You read for fun!”

“Hard work, good tutors, and…” She flipped her hair. “I actually just am the smartest person I know.”

“Humblest person too,” I offered.

“And _you_ Seaweed Brain,” she continued, wisely electing to ignore me. “Now have the best fucking tutor you’re going to get, so if you put in some actual effort, we will be able to determine whether you’re actually dumb.”

I paused, deliberating this. Something didn’t make sense here. “Why do you care so much?” I asked. “I’ve always been under the impression that you and I weren’t like, close.”

“And you’d be right,” Annabeth answered easily. “We aren’t. But, I promised that I’d tutor you, so I will.”

I looked up at the board. It was now so crowded I think I would have trouble reading it even if I _could_ read good. “I think Chiron didn’t mean for you to go this far.”

“Well, tough, because I’m no quitter,” Annabeth declared. “Plus, I always appreciate the challenge. You’re a puzzle, Percy. An annoying puzzle that was dumped into my lap with only half the pieces in the box, but a puzzle regardless. If I can solve how to tutor you, I’ll be that much smarter and stronger for it.”

“Well, happy to be merely one of the steps on your stairway to success, then,” I muttered, actively trying to ignore how much she sounded like Chiron just then. It pained me to admit, but it was quite possible that she would be good at this. Still, assuming this wasn’t some elaborate prank, and Annabeth had been telling the truth this whole time…

“I’m sorry for what I said,” I admitted.

“You’re going to have to be a _lot_ more specific, Seaweed Brain,” she remarked.

I gritted my teeth. She never made anything easy either, it would seem, but still, I was in the wrong, and I had to face the music. “I’m sorry for all that stuff I said about the ‘mental lottery’ and all that. I mean, I could never dream of doing half the stuff you do, but if we started at the same place, and you got that far… I mean, you’re seriously incredible, Annabeth.”

She froze in place, clearly not expecting me to be nice. “Oh, uhm, well, thank you, Percy, that’s- that’s nice of you to say.” She immediately turned back to the board, refusing to look at me, muttering to herself about all the things she had to do on the board. 

I immediately became intimately aware of the fact that I had just said a lot of words that were the worst combination of ‘genuine’ and ‘not even remotely thought out’, and also I was still very much alone in the room with her. I quickly felt every cell in my body flare up in embarrassment. I had to do something and I had to do it fast. “Aww, did Wise Girl get embarrassed from the compliment?” I teased, about to die from embarrassment.

She scowled and turned back to me. “One nice moment, and you ruined it, Seaweed Brain.”

I waggled my eyebrows. “Oh so you admit we were having a moment?” If somebody wanted to shoot me dead where I sat, I would’ve welcomed it, but Annabeth elected to just throw a whiteboard eraser at me.

“Back to reading,” she growled. “This time, let me know if you need help with a word or something.”

“You might as well just read it to me at that point.”

“Can’t. I have to go through your whole lesson plan, remember? Suffer in silence for now.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

I went back to the book, happy with my work. Annabeth and I had gotten dangerously close to forming a friendship there, but I had brought us back, so she was still just a friend of a friend. Admittedly though, she was now shaping up to be a friend of a friend who was a pretty good tutor.


End file.
